Turkey: Judge, four prosecutors expelled for misconduct

ANKARA

A Turkish judicial body expelled Tuesday four high-profile public prosecutors, and a judge linked to the December 2013 anti-graft probe.

The High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, or the HSYK, announced that prosecutors Zekeriya Oz, Celal Kara, Muammer Akkas, Mehmet Yuzgec, and Judge Suleyman Karacol had been dismissed in accordance with Article 69 of the Judges and Prosecutors' Law No. 2802, which states that judges and prosecutors would be dismissed from duty if their acts damaged the honor of their profession, and of the reputation of their public post.

All five were already on suspension due to an ongoing investigation into their roles in the probe. The prosecutors were suspended last December, while the judge was suspended in March.

A court in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district accepted on April 29 an indictment filed by Bakirkoy prosecutor’s office against Kara and Aktas.

While Kara, who headed a Dec. 17, 2013 probe, was accused of “misconduct,” Akkas, who led another investigation on Dec. 25, was charged with violating the secrecy of the probe.

The prosecutor’s office also accused Judge Karacol, who presided over the Dec. 25 case, of “neglect of duty” and urged the court for a two-year jail term.

The December 2013 anti-graft operations saw detentions and arrests of high-profile bureaucrats, the sons of three cabinet ministers and businessmen close to the government.

The government had denounced the probe as a "dirty plot" constructed by the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen’s movement and his alleged "parallel state."

Since then, hundreds of police officers have been detained and judicial members reshuffled on charges of eavesdropping on Turkey's top officials, disclosing highly sensitive information, forming and belonging to an organization to commit crime, violating privacy, illegally seizing personal information and forgery of official documents.